Failure mode and effects analysis

Failure mode and effects analysis, or FMEA, is a systematic analytical process that reviews as many of a system components, assemblies and subsystems as possible to identify their potential failure modes along with the causes and effects of each, recording the findings in structured worksheets. It reasons inductively from a component possible failure to its consequences at the system level, and can be done qualitatively or semi-quantitatively using a risk priority number that combines the probability, severity and detectability of each failure, assuming only one failure occurs at a time under normal conditions. The technique originated in the United States military, with procedures for the related failure mode, effects and criticality analysis described in 1949 in document MIL-P-1629 and later revised in 1980; NASA contractors used FMEA on programs including Apollo, Viking and Voyager by the 1960s, the Society of Automotive Engineers published a version for civil aviation in 1967, and the automotive industry adopted it widely from the 1970s onward, notably at Ford after the Pinto affair. FMEA is now used across aerospace, food service, healthcare and software development, and should begin early in a design and continue through its lifecycle, updated whenever the design, operations or regulations change significantly. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/